March 8, 2002

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2002 ACC Tournament on TheACC.com | All-ACCess

Maryland Head Coach Gary Williams:
Opening statement: "Florida State and Steve Robinson-I expected that today. They had a great win last night. To dig like they did last night to win that game, I thought gave them some momentum heading into today. We did not play our best, but obviously Florida State had something to do with that early. They made a great run coming out at half time and we had to use two time outs to try and stop them. We raised it up 10 to 15 percent just in terms of our activity and from there we were okay."

"I thought Tahj Holden and Ryan Randle came in and did a great job for us. They finally got us going. We did not seem to have much energy early. I really thought the other players really fed off those two guys. Byron Mouton played well. He has been the unsung hero for us the last two months of the season. He doesn't get the share of attention that some of the other players get. Byron is just a guy that finds a way to score."

On media timeout at 15:10 mark of second half: "It did not matter if there was a TV timeout or not. I would have burned another one. You don't want to keep them in your pocket. The way that thing was going we had to get it stopped somehow."

On Steve Blake: "Steve all year and all career -- has been able to hit the big shot. His job is to get these guys the ball. When they sag or double team it is his job to step up. As a junior he really picks his spots. We needed a spark and he has the guts to do it.

Juan Dixon
"Florida State gave us their best effort. They had an emotional win last night and we knew they were going to come out ready to play."

On playing the rest of the season: "I think that we need to get prepared for a teams best effort. We just need to stick together and stay strong mentally throughout the tournament, like we have all year."

Florida State Head Coach Steve Robinson:
Opening Statement: "The most disappointing thing about ending the season is that it's the end of the season. We've been together with these guys and shared a lot of moments. Seeing them leave... It's always tough, but it's part of the business. It's what we do as coaches and players."

"Today's game-it was such a quick turnaround to try and come back after last night's game. I tried to convince those guys that everything was going to be all right, you've got to play. Twenty-five minutes into the basketball game, we gave ourselves every chance we could to do it. We had some stretches where the shots wouldn't go down for us. Then Maryland gets hot and makes those shots. That's the difference in the ball game."

On the game getting away quickly in the second half: "(Maryland) is an explosive team. One basket can lead to two and two can lead to three. We had balls rolling around the rim. I can't tell you how many shots were almost there... The harder we tried, the more resistance we got from the ball."

On whether Nigel Dixon had a fair chance to post up: "I probably can't answer that question. For some reason, I can't give my true feelings about that."

Antwuan Dixon
On attacking the FSU zone defense: "I think it made our guys have to come out further on the floor. We weren't able to control the game as much as we'd like. When you have a player like Juan Dixon who can shoot from 28 or 30 feet out on the floor, I think that hurts you. When you have a player on the other wing, like Drew Nicholas, who can shoot, that really stretches out your defense."

On Maryland's title chances: "Maryland has a very good basketball team. They have strength inside as well as outside. They have a quality point guard, shooting guard and a quality backup point guard and shooting guard. I think that makes them competitive for the national championship. I think they will definitely be one of the teams to beat for the title."

Delvon Arrington
On Maryland's big run: "We fought back hard in the second half, momentum was on our side and we were doing the things coach wanted us to do. Fatigue set in, but I can't blame it on that. This is what you live for, to play the game of basketball. When you're out there, you have to forget about those things. Things went back their way. Momentum changed and never changed back."